The Boys star teases impending Soldier Boy, Homelander face-off in season 3: 'Two great whites'
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Warning: This article contains spoilers from The Boys season 3 episodes 1-5.
Is Homelander about to meet his match? The Boys season 3 has unleashed Soldier Boy, the patriotic supe's cold-blooded predecessor, and the two are on a collision course that promises to be nothing short of cataclysmic.
"It's definitely a real problem when two great whites are swimming in a very small sea together," Antony Starr, who plays Homelander, tells EW. "It was so much fun just playing around with that."
Jensen Ackles debuted this season as vintage supe Soldier Boy, who Starr says "spearheads" the themes of toxic masculinity that showrunner Eric Kripke wanted to explore this season. "His alpha instincts and Homelander's alpha instincts definitely lead to some fireworks."
Amazon Prime (2) Homelander (Antony Starr, left) and Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) are on a collision course for each other in 'The Boys' season 3.
Having released Soldier Boy from cryogenic stasis, after he had been subjected to harsh experiments for decades at a secret Russian lab, Butcher (Karl Urban) and Hughie (Jack Quaid) have high hopes for their new business partner.
Soldier Boy wants revenge against Payback, the World War II-era supe team he used to lead back in the day that sold him out to the Russians. If the Boys help the super soldier pick them off the remaining members — the Crimson Countess (Laurie Holden) and Gunpowder (Sean Patrick Flanery) are already toast — then maybe he'll return the favor by taking out Homelander.
In addition to his Captain America-like abilities, Soldier Boy comes with a handy trick: the bursts of radiation he launches from his body can burn the Compound V right out of a supe's blood, leaving them powerless. One would assume that not even the nearly invincible Homelander could withstand that.
"This show's so primal in one way," Starr explains. "There's all these levels within the hierarchy of the show and everyone's vying to get to the next rung of the ladder, and everyone is attempting to be ascendant. Everyone's trying to get ahead of each other. It's very animalistic in that sense. Soldier Boy is another apex predator."
Amazon Prime Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy on 'The Boys'
Further teasing the impending confrontation between the two supes, Kripke says, "It doesn't go well. When you have two alpha males who both consider themselves the most powerful, most famous person on the planet, that gets to conflict pretty quickly."
"It's just fame and celebrity are cruel, man," Kripke adds. "Soldier Boy was Homelander before Homelander. He was the biggest superhero in the world but eventually fades off into obscurity."
The question is, will Soldier Boy face Homelander before or after taking out everyone on his kill list? He's still got the TNT Twins, Mindstorm, and Black Noir to confront.
Amazon will premiere The Boys season 3's sixth episode — the long-awaited "Herogasm" adaptation — this Friday on Prime Video.
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